WG2 Workshop, Tovetorp, SWEDEN

To answer how humans have affected genetic diversity across species, both positively and negatively, a group of G-BiKE members teamed up with other conservation genetics specialists to embark on a global meta-analysis of trends in genetic diversity, on a scale never attempted before. For this to happen, they needed to screen a shortlist of more than 30 thousand scientific articles that may contain valuable genetic trend data, before actual data analysis. All biomes and all multicellular taxonomic groups are included, with wild and domesticated species, endangered and common species, etc. The workshop in the ethological research station of Stockholm University at Tovetorp (Sweden) was set up to train 15 specialists of WG 2 (genetic monitoring) to screen papers and extract data in a standardized way for later analyses. Overall, they screened nearly 9000 articles, and extracted temporal genetic data from more than 200 species. They will continue to work on this programme for the next few weeks, albeit in isolation. Other G-BiKErs will be recruited with the aim of completing this endeavour in a couple of months.